


Admiration

by babycore



Series: My Upperclassman [3]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Compliant, Confessions, F/M, Fluff, Getting Together, Hope's Peak Academy, M/M, Not Beta Read, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:00:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24040204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babycore/pseuds/babycore
Summary: Hajime and Makoto have a lot to think about, and maybe it’s time someone confesses.Continuation of Approval
Relationships: Hinata Hajime & Nanami Chiaki, Hinata Hajime/Naegi Makoto, Komaeda Nagito/Nanami Chiaki, Kuwata Leon & Maizono Sayaka, Maizono Sayaka & Naegi Makoto
Series: My Upperclassman [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1704034
Comments: 5
Kudos: 82





	Admiration

**Author's Note:**

> I AM SO SORRY THAT THIS IS SO LATE i have no excuses ive just been lazy (if youre here looking for updates on under the tree i promise that is coming soon too!!!)
> 
> no trigger warnings that i can think of! also chiaki and nagito are dating they’re cute and i love them

Makoto wasted no time in hurriedly finding Sayaka. Though he wanted time to himself to process what had just happened, he also wanted to see what she thought. Did she think it was a sign of a crush? Or was he reading into it too much? He was terrified that he was reading into it too much. He needed a second opinion immediately.

Running down the hall (which he knew Kiyotaka would kill him for if he saw, which he fortunately didn't) he went for the music room, where Sayaka was most likely to be unless she was in her dorm room. But judging by the guitar playing and singing radiating from the room, she was there, as was Leon. Which meant he’d have to get her alone, which wouldn’t be particularly hard.

He stopped outside the music room, taking a second to catch his breath before entering the room. Just as he expected, Leon was playing guitar was Sayaka was singing along. It didn’t look particularly intimate, so Makoto wasn’t especially embarrassed to enter the room. “Pardon my intrusion...”

“Hey! Naegi!” Leon called with a grin, lowering his guitar a little. “Not to worry. Sayaka was just helpin’ me practice and stuff.”

“Naegi-kun!” Sayaka said as she lit up. She seemed to know exactly what he wanted to talk about. “Is something the matter?”

Makoto shook his head. “Nothing wrong, really... but I do need to talk to you about something, if that would be alright.”

Sayaka nodded. “Is that okay, Kuwata-kun? I should only be a minute.”

“Go for it. Take your time,” Leon told them. “I wanna experiment with this bad boy for a little bit anyway.”

The two of them went into the hall. Sayaka looked almost ready to burst. “Naegi-kun, did you talk to him? Did it go well? You seem nervous.”

“Well... it went well,” Makoto told her. That much was true. It had went well. At least, it definitely didn’t go badly. “I’m just... having trouble figuring out how he feels about me.”

“What do you mean?” Sayaka pressed. “What happened? What did he say?”

Makoto told her. He told her everything. About Hiyoko bullying Mikan in the hall and stepping in, about Hiyoko bullying him in return, about Hajime stepping in. About Hajime telling him to talk to him again soon, about Hajime telling him to find him if he ever needed him.

“Naegi-kun!” Sayaka exclaimed. “I love you, and you’re my best friend, but you’re being incredibly dense!”

“Wh...?”

“He likes you!” the idol continued, gripping Makoto’s hands. “Or, at the very least, he’s interested! What did you say back?”

Makoto looked away sheepishly, blushing. “I didn’t really say much of anything...”

Sayaka sighed, but she smiled a little. “Well... this is a step in the right direction, at least.”

***

“Who was that you were talking to?” Nagito asked as the three of them walked back to the dorms.

At first, Hajime was a little surprised Nagito didn’t know who Makoto was, but then he realized Nagito was too fixated on the game to really pay attention.

“Naegi. The underclassmen’s lucky student,” he responded.

Nagito grinned a little, finally looking up from the game. “Ah, it was Naegi-kun, then?”

Hajime didn’t like the knowing smirk on Nagito’s lips, but he liked the slight tease to his tone even less. “Don’t act like you know exactly what’s going on. It’s not very becoming.”

“Oh? But I’m not doing anything,” Nagito hummed, looking back at Chiaki’s game. “I’m just watching my girlfriend do what she calls a pro gamer move.”

“I’m catching tarantulas,” Chiaki spoke, referring to whatever she was playing on her Switch. Hajime figured it was Animal Crossing.

“That’s a pro gamer move if I’ve ever seen one,” Hajime teased back. “But seriously, Nagito, it’s not attractive to butt into other people’s business.”

Nagito pouted. “Nanami-san, am I unbecoming?”

“Absolutely,” Chiaki told him with a slight giggle. “The worst. I told you to just call me Chiaki, though. We’re dating. It’s kind of weird to call me by my last name. Oh, hey, I’m about to catch some wasps. Watch this.”

Hajime couldn’t help but smile. When Chiaki and Nagito had started dating, Hajime had been a little worried about getting third wheeled, but instead his friendship with them had only gotten stronger. Plus, it felt really nice to see Nagito so happy, even if he still clearly had self doubts, like feeling too inferior to his own girlfriend to call her by her first name. But she was helping him, and it was nice to watch.

He looked back ahead of them, figuring he needed to be the one to make sure nobody walked into any walls or doors or whatnot. He tried to keep Nagito’s teasing from getting to him, but he couldn’t help but blush as he thought about it. Nagito and Chiaki weren’t his only classmates to know about his crush on Makoto. It was kind of humiliating. And he really did think he hadn’t been that obvious about it, too.

But that led him to wonder, was his crush obvious to the underclassman too? Makoto had started to seem flustered around him every time they crossed paths, and it all began when he praised him outside the dorms that one day. While it was possible Makoto returned his feelings, he felt like it was more likely that he had just made Makoto uncomfortable.

Although, the way he had acted moments before left Hajime questioning that thought. Makoto didn’t seem uncomfortable. He really did seem grateful...

He sighed softly to himself, quiet the entire way to the dorms. He was about to enter his own, when Chiaki stopped him.

“Hajime-kun... is something bothering you? You were acting... weird,” Chiaki pointed out to him, which embarrassed him quite a bit. “Did Nagito-kun upset you with the teasing? I doubt he really meant anything by it, but I can talk to him if you want...”

Hajime shook his head, smiling weakly. “No, no. It’s okay. The teasing didn’t bother me that much.”

Chiaki returned the smile, though she looked concerned. “Is there anything bothering you...?”

He had to think about it; of course he wanted to tell Chiaki exactly how he was feeling, but it was almost like he just couldn’t get the words to leave his throat. Finally, he decided on, “How can you tell if someone likes you?”

The girl let out a hum as she thought. “Well... I’m not entirely sure. When I asked Nagito-kun to date me, it was a shot in the dark. I had no idea if he liked me or not. Sometimes I suspected he did, but... It’s hard with him. You know more than almost anyone how he gets.”

Hajime nodded in agreement to that sentiment. Oh, he knew very well how Nagito got. “So... you had no clue what he was going to say?”

“Not a single clue,” Chiaki confirmed. “Is this about Naegi-kun?”

“You caught me,” Hajime sighed, laughing nervously. “But... it’s okay. Even just that much helped. Weren’t you nervous when you asked Nagito out, since you didn’t know what he’d say?”

“Oh, of course!” Chiaki replied with a nod. “But I didn’t like not knowing more than I wouldn’t like knowing the feeling wasn’t mutual. The uncertainty stressed me out more than anything else.”

Hajime gave a half-grin. “So you’ve basically just told me what I have to do.”

“Nope. Not telling you to do anything. You do what you feel is right.”

Chiaki took a look at her system and frowned a bit.

“Battery is low. Talk to you later?”

Hajime nodded. This conversation definitely gave him something to think about for a few hours. “Yeah. Talk to you later.”

***

Makoto felt like a giant idiot, and was only more confused. Sayaka was one of his closest friends, and he knew she meant well, but that conversation had only made him feel foolish and kind of embarrassed. Even if Sayaka had insisted that Hajime liked him, he still couldn’t quite see it, and it made him feel stupid.

He had wandered back to the school store, even though he was afraid that he might have another run-in with Hiyoko. He kind of wanted to get a snack or something, and he was glad that there were no tiny, malicious upperclassmen there to harass him again.

As he looked through the store’s selection of snacks, he heard someone else enter, and his stomach dropped, terrified that Hiyoko was back to bully him again.

He looked up, and instead of Hiyoko’s tiny, terrifying presence, he saw Hajime instead, and was instantly flooded with relief.

“Hinata-senpai,” he said with a relieved sigh. “It feels like I just saw you, and right here too.”

“Why’d you seem so stressed?” Hajime teased, staying at the entrance. “Did you think I was Saionji again?”

Makoto nodded sheepishly. “Yes, actually... but I’m glad it was just you.”

“Just me, huh?” Hajime asked, now approaching the underclassman. “Why’d you come back, anyway? Didn’t you have enough of her bullying?”

“It’s not like that at all. I came to get a snack,” Makoto insisted. “What are you doing back here?”

Hajime shrugged. What was he doing back here?

“I dunno. Maybe I was hungry, too.”

Makoto nodded, deciding not to push it despite that not seeming like the whole truth. “Um... thank you agai—“

“Woah. Hey.”

Hajime stopped him, holding a hand up to signal that.

“No. Don’t thank me again, okay?”

He only realized how harsh that sounded when he noticed Makoto retreat into himself a little, so he added hastily, “It’s just, you don’t need to thank me every time you see me. You deserved the praise, and you didn’t deserve to be bothered. I know I’m your senpai, but... Being one year older than you doesn’t make me wildly more important or more wise than you. Especially because I’m not even here as anything. At least you’ve got an Ultimate talent, even if it’s kind of a hand out.”

Makoto frowned. Is that how Hajime really felt? He thought back to that day in the hall, when he had received praise from Hajime. It finally occurred to him that maybe the reason Hajime knew he needed praise was because he never got it himself. After all, he was right. Him and Nagito were lucky students, which some considered to not even be a talent, while others considered it to be a gift or blessing from the universe. But Hajime had no talent at all, not even one given to him by chance.

“Um... Hinata-senpai...”

Makoto hesitated a moment.

“You may not have a Hope’s Peak designated talent, but... I know your class can be a handful. But... the way you handle them is absolutely amazing! I don’t think I could remotely keep up with any of them the way you do! Even if you may not have an Ultimate talent... you’re an essential part of your class, I know this! They need you!”

Hajime was definitely a little taken aback, and honestly pretty flustered. He wanted to play it cool for the younger student, but he wasn’t expecting that, and he was having trouble recovering from it.

“... Thanks, Naegi,” was all he was able to manage out.

Makoto laughed nervously. “Sorry, too much...?”

“No, not at all. I just...” Hajime sighed, letting go of the tension that he didn’t even realize he had. “I wasn’t expecting it. Thank you. Really.”

The older student shifted a little, Chiaki’s words from earlier replaying in his head. The best way to know was to ask. He could guess how Makoto felt all he wanted, but he wouldn’t truly know until he just asked.

“Hey... forgive me if this is weird or uncalled for, but... maybe we could hang out sometime.”

Makoto smiled, nodding. “Yeah! That sounds nice.”

Cute, but Hajime knew immediately that Makoto had no clue what he actually meant.

“I... I mean, like...” Hajime stuttered, feeling so stupid for getting so clammed up. “I wanna hang out as like— a thing. I don’t know. Go on a date or something. Get to know you outside of being a lucky student.”

Makoto turned bright red, feeling his heart skip a beat. Was this real? This couldn’t have been real. He must have fallen asleep while listening to Sayaka and Leon practice and now he was dreaming. But it all felt really real... He looked at the wrapper of a candy and then blinked. The words didn’t change. This was real.

“Sorry,” Hajime apologized as he sensed Makoto’s hesitation. “Maybe that was—“

“No!” Makoto almost squeaked. “No, no, I want to! I want to go on a date! I like you!”

The tension in the room totally melted, at least for Hajime.

“Oh—“ Hajime replied, relieved by the positive answer. “Yeah... yeah. Okay. Cool. Awesome. Um—“ He wanted to punch himself for losing his cool like this. “How— how about I give you my phone number really quick? And— we can figure out the details when we’re not busy. Cool?”

“Yeah!” Makoto said, barely able to contain his excitement as he took out his phone from his pocket.

The two boys exchanged numbers, and Makoto felt his hands shaking as they typed in each others’ numbers.

“Awesome,” Hajime said again, pocketing his phone back. “I’ll— I’ll see you later, okay? I’ve got homework and stuff, but... I promise I’ll text you as soon as I’m done, okay?”

“Okay!” Makoto replied. “Yeah! I’ll... I’ll see you!”

Hajime nodded, feeling absolutely giddy too. Makoto was giddy, too; giddy enough that he forget what he even came to the school store for and ended up leaving empty handed.

(...And came back about five minutes later after remembering and actually got a snack this time, the excitement of being asked out still pulsing through him.)

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! again im so so so sorry how late this was. more danganronpa coming too! i wanna expand upon my junko/mikan fic and i wanna redo an old sonia/ibuki fic, plus redo an old komahina au i started on wattpad years ago! look forward to it! and i have an idea for more hinaegi sooo


End file.
